At this point,the lady stopped speaking. It had grown even darker in the room, early evening had fallen with Christine enraptured by the telling of a tale that seemed to come from a diseased imagination.
She had once read a work by an author that had left a growing disgusted disquiet within her, adding to the aimless rage and despair within her because even then she had known that there were people who could make real. If she remembered correctly, she had started that series of Terry Goodkind with Sword of Truth and had continued because she had liked the system of magic described but by the time she had reached the book tittled chainfire,she was too sickened to continue.
Sickened with herself for having perservered so long for a conclusion she no longer wanted to know, she had never read another word written by that man.
They had stopped, saying they were going to continue the history the next day. After a large supper she had spent an hour practicing her centering body movement technique, the one her mother described as like Tai Chi, before having a bath and going to bed.
She lay awake now wondering what time it was. Her racing heart had slowed down some and her breathing was deliberately measured, calming her further.
She wondered as well about what point in time did the world become as it was now, logically,it must have happened gradually, the descent of humanity into a septic suppurative cancerous ulcer had ultimately been gradual.
It may have seemed abrupt and with the telling of the history being started in the year 2030 it did seem abrupt.
Christine's past life had been spent watching shows and movies and reading books that had indicated that the world would one day be united under one governor, by the year 2024 when she took her life, there were men who were already open about not continuing to contribute meaningfully to society and the economy while believing themselves entitled to women's labour and their bodies to further their "legacies".
She could see how the world became what it was, the book and TV series based on the same book by Margaret Atwood; the handmaid's tale, already had emphasized the role some women had always played in the subjugation and dehumanization of women just so that they could be in proximity to power.
She fell asleep again while idly wondering.
The next day was like a whole new world, after breakfast, she was given a children's book and the "high sapphire" 🫴 she read aloud. The book was new and the hard board pages bright and colourful.
The plot was depressingly non existent, about five words to a page, about a baby monkey learning to jump from tree to tree. It was also written in English.
Almost a thousand years had passed and English was still the lingua franca.
She read haltingly, not because of difficulties recognizing the words, but because some of the words contained letters that fought her tongue in the pronouncing, like S and W.
She clearly had stutter,and in embarrassed worry she wondered if speech impediments were viewed as disabilities. The calm way the great grandmother simply took the book when she was done assured her that it might not be, but she swore to herself to improve upon her speech.
After that, the history continued,the grandmother picking up where she had left of.
" Not all women had fallen under the government rule. A small group survived by hiding in a defunct mine in southern Africa early on when the vicious all male military was first set on the public. Most of the women had their children with them and some were pregnant, this had been before rape was legalized so it is assumed these children were wanted. Everyone alive now is descended from this group"
They survived by stealing supplies from the world above,and expanding the existing and reinforcing the man made caves. They figured how to filture sunlight into the caverns they so could they could grow their own food using simple hydroponic techniques.
They were lucky in that the abandoned mine was flooded in some areas so they had a source of some what fresh water, they had not run to it all helter shelter, having seen the way things were going they had prepared to retreat to it. Initially it was filled with food, clothing and water purification supplies and also lead,regardless and rock sheet, all which lasted dozens of weeks before they had to resort to thievery.
The government had kept a watch on people hoarding food and supplies, by arresting anyone buying more than they would need for a month on charges of sedition and treason. This was before the 24/7 surveillance infrastructure was put in place.
So to prepare, the fifteen women and their families had rationed their monthly resources for over three years, storing in small plastic cases their non perishable foodstuffs and tents and clothes in a mine shaft they worked to secure at night.
Most of these women were related or friends with one another, they had agreed on the course they would take when things went wrong and prepared for that day,they agreed not to expand their group after one of the women told her sister that the government was working to enslave the mandatory that sister told her lover at the time, leading to that woman being arrested to be questioned for conspiracy to revolt against the government.
After her release she killed herself after writing a note on the walls of her room in blood saying trust no one. So the group had done as she said, they didn't even attempt to take their friends ' son who was being raised by his paternal grandparents with them to safety when they fled.
Only a select few were allowed out of the mines to "forage", they had a falls tooth filled cyanide that they would bite down on and break to kill themselves should they be captured. An idea from spy thriller movies.
They lived without electricity or making fire, living on cold marinated foods or heated it in direct sunlight to slow cook. They were afraid that high heat would be detected by the government.
To hide their body heat signatures their main living caverns were lined with lead and the surrounding areas filled with old plastic bottles of ice made from the abundant salt petre found in some of the mines.
As they grew older and the children they had reached adulthood, some of them selected to go to the outside to provide for the community. News of the outside was growing ever more fraught, they left later in the night and had to stay out for days, avoiding military patrols and roving bands of rapists.
They were coming back with less and less as increased security in state run stores reached paranoid levels of vigilence so they decided to resort to stealing from women only residences.
They always chose androgynous women to make these runs, dressed in men clothes they figured it would be a while before the government looked for women.
They ranged far from their home mines before they would hit a settlement, walking on average for three or five nights before deciding where to strike, they had a rule of waiting twelve months before returning to the same settlement.
The boy children who grew into the men amongst them were never let out of the mines. This was a mistake.